Rescuers Steamed Up
by et-tu-lj
Summary: A Steampunk A.U. of a scene from the Rescuers. Bernard/Bianca, Penny. Mild mouse romance. Random oneshot.


**Prompts:** Mouse, Genre: AU, Just before the battle, and This one small voice for the livejournal communities tamingthemuse and writerverse

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The brave members of the Rescue Aid Society were running out of time. Madame Medusa would expect Penny back from the steam tunnels soon, and her patience was running thin. They had to find the key tonight, for Penny's sake.

"It has to be here," Bernard said. He turned, agitated, and his long tail clanged dully against the iron walls as he turned. "But where?"

"Hush, dear." Miss Bianca patted his arm fondly. Her soft smile did a lot to soothe his anxiety. "With a little faith, we can't help but find the solution."

Bernard took a calming breath and met her eyes. She was right, of course. He couldn't let his nerves get the best of him. Penny was depending on them.

The girl kept pace with them, sticking to the main corridor as the two mice searched the pipes on either side. Penny clutched her teddy to her chest as she made her way forward, weaving through the tangled maze of steam pipes and pumping tubes. Somewhere, in the nested tunnels beneath the docking bay, the pirates had secured their prize. The clockwork key to the imperial arsenal, stolen from the emperor himself. Their airship evaded the soldiers for only four days, but just before the final battle, they'd made it to port and hidden the key.

The key, to an army.

"What are we going to do when we find it?" Bernard asked anxiously. "We can't let it fall into Madame Medusa's clutches. With it, she could take over the empire."

Miss Bianca's whiskers quivered, as a rare moment of doubt showed on her face. "I just don't know," she admitted in a small voice. "It's too powerful to give up. But we can't let the poor girl suffer for it."

They stopped, and peered at the child through a gap in the pipelines. The tear tracks shown plainly on Penny's face, but she never complained. Medusa had her down here, searching, for a week before they'd arrived. Alone, in a nightmare of twisting tunnels and narrow gaps, where the touch of the wrong pipe could scald you for life. His heart ached to imagine her terror.

"Right," he said. "Find the key first. Rescue Penny. Then we stop Medusa, together."

Miss Bianca flashed him a brilliant smile and gave him a peck on the cheek, and the ground fell away beneath him. His head spun, like he was tipping over the edge to plunging headlong out of control again. Bernard was terrified, but no albatross flight had ever made him feel giddy.

"Right," he said again. He huffed out his cheeks, ruffling his whiskers, and tried to get ahold of himself. "The key."

He set his paws on the path forward. The bronze pipe they were on ran parallel to the floor, winding silently down the length of the tunnel. Bernard followed it to the turn, trying to ignore the soft pad of Miss Bianca's paws behind him. There, the pipe intersected others at a valve. Steam vented from somewhere below, and the pipe beyond hissed with heat.

Bernard climbed down to a lower pipe, finding it unpleasantly warm beneath his paws. He offered his paw gallantly to Miss Bianca. She took it graciously, hopping down next to him, and then again to the ground. Her paw was soft in his, and the warmth that infused his cheeks was not entirely due to the heat of their surroundings.

In the tunnel, he was surprised to find Penny had fallen behind. She'd stopped several paces back from the turn, and the fear on her face made him look anxiously for a forgotten pirate.

"What's wrong, dear?" Miss Bianca padded quickly back to the girl. Penny reached her hand down, and Miss Bianca ran quickly up her sleeve to nestle at the girl's shoulder. She reached up to rest her paws against the girl's cheek. Penny sniffed, her lip quivering.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the turn ahead, wide and full of terror. His fur prickled and Bernard began to turn, just as something behind him gurgled to life.

He jumped, darting back toward the others, and saw a monstrous web of bronze and pewter pipes. The sucking noises came from the center, where the tangle of valves was so dense it seemed to pulse with heat and life. He gulped, staring at the heart of the machine, and tried to make sense of what he saw.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Where the water comes in," Penny whispered. "I'm afraid to go there."

Bernard wrapped his tail around his body, thinking. "If I were an air pirate, that's just where I'd hide the key." He tugged his hat down over his ears, trying to look brave. "I'll… um, go investigate then."

He padded silently to the junction. The device slurped hungrily at his approach. "Or come to think of it, if I were a pirate, I definitely wouldn't hide anything there."

Bernard glanced back over his shoulder, to where the others waited. Miss Bianca perched on Penny's shoulder, and the girl's fingers moved restlessly across her soft fur. The two mice exchanged a look, and Miss Bianca's gentle smile gave him the courage to turn back to the machine.

"Key first," he told himself, "then rescue." Whatever came next, the two of them would face it together.


End file.
